The History of Teachers Credit Union and Rebrand to Everwise

Digitize the banking. Don't digitize your relationship with your customer and be there for them in a human way. Enough people had made deposits to like, help us bring this to life. Like that's a pretty cool like circle of life of the dollar. What is less convenient than getting out of the house and going to the branch?

It's really not about convenience, it's about confidence coming in here as this new guy from Atlanta, was that a challenge for you to come in there and, you know, help drive this thing forward? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get IN the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today.

I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get INdiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. getindiana.com is your one stop shop for everything Indiana. From festival and event guides, to blog posts covering hidden gems, local businesses, small towns, and more. Check it out and learn something new about the Hoosier State@getindiana.com.

And don't forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter right there at the top. My guest today is Jason Osterhage. He's president and CEO of Everwise Credit Union, a role that he's held since March of 2022. Before that, he studied at Georgia State University. He got an MBA from Emory down in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta, Georgia baby. Then he also did some post-graduate work at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and Stanford University Graduate School of Business. This guy is a lifelong learner. I'm really excited to dive into. This legacy credit union here in Indiana, what it's like to rebrand one of those legacy institutions here.

Talk about the impact that you all are making in the state of Indiana. And also we are gonna definitely talk about the amphitheater downtown and you know, whose name is on that. All that fun stuff. 'cause as a music aficionado, I have been a large fan of your brand. I've seen it lots of times. I've very much enjoyed it.

So, great. Welcome to the show. I'm glad to be here. Okay. I mean, we're gonna, we're gonna start off with the hard hitting questions. Not born in Indiana, not originally a Hoosier. You are one of the, the people we call a Hoosier by choice. Correct? Indeed. You moved here in 2022. March of 22. Okay, we gotta talk first impressions.

You, um, you moved to Indiana. And you come here March of 2022. This is like post pandemic. So like life is pretty normal at that point. What was the initial first impression of Indiana? There's a lot more to it than I thought. Oh, okay. So, and, and maybe that is an experience that a lot of people have. If you haven't spent a bunch of time in Indiana, you think it's kind of, uh, a flyover place.

Right. But, um, I had lived in Atlanta, as I said, Emory University there since my grade school years, and then came to Chicago and spent nine years in Chicago. Driven through, yeah. Indiana a couple of times. Yeah. All right. Down 65. Seen the windmills, said All right. Nice to see you. Like we're, we're onto the next thing.

So you, you know, get the opportunity to come down here Yep. And join at the time Teachers Credit Union, correct? Correct. You Teachers Credit Union headquartered in South Bend, Indiana. So I moved to South Bend. Oh, yep. So your first experience with the Hoosier State was in South Bend? That's correct.

Thoughts. We just got back from there. Uh, I really like South Bend. Yeah. I had an apartment there at South Bend and I could kind of see the Golden Dome from my apartment window and history would go. Yeah. Jogging on campus at Notre Dame is, is a beautiful town. Tradition, history, the whole thing. I did one of those, it was a Friday morning, maybe like a month or two ago.

I'm like jogging through campus on a Friday. The Irish had just won last week. We're getting ready for another game and it just, there's just a vibe. This isn't like the fall in northern Indiana is crisp, just a little crisper, like coming off of Lake Michigan. It's beautiful. Yeah. Okay. So you moved to South Bend, and today.

You are the CEO of Everwise Credit Union, but you joined a company called Teachers Credit Union. That's correct. Um, and those are not the same thing. You did not get a different job. Right. Um, okay, so, so you joined this. Organization in 2022. You moved to South Bend kinda as you took it over and, and got, you know, running there.

I think the first thing we need to talk about is the difference between banks and credit unions and how, I mean, this is a legacy business in Indiana, but I don't know if the average listener would know that difference there. That's a great place to start. Maybe we could talk a little bit about Everwise Yeah.

And its history and kind of what's unique about it. And we'll get into more of that later, but we could also talk about, yeah. Um, what's the difference between a credit union and a bank? So, Everwise founded as Teachers Credit Union in 1931 in South Bend. So, um, we're a 94-year-old. Organization. We're one of the oldest credit unions in Indiana, and today the largest credit union in Indiana.

So we were founded by teachers. And historically you had to be a part of a kind of a field of membership, as we call it, like a common bond. So for much of our history, you had to be a teacher to bank at Teachers Credit Union. But 25 years ago, that sort of changed a little bit and we've grown across the state.

And so we've continued to grow and we are the largest credit union. As I said today, we have 50 branch locations across the state in various different regions. That is an interesting piece of like, as I've learned and did some research on this, it was like there was a common bond of something, whether for the, the original company, it was teachers.

So you would, and then if you were a teacher, you would get a access to, right. Your financial. Right. So credit unions are customer-owned cooperatives here in a state like Indiana. An agricultural economy is important to us here. Yeah. Many Indiana, uh, folks, Hoosiers are familiar with cooperatives, so we are customer-owned cooperatives.

Our customers that bank with us, we call them members, and they own the cooperative. Oh, okay. The board is elected from the membership, so they're representatives of the members and they govern the credit union, the like, so. How do you choose who the board would be? Like, how do they pick? Is this like blind draw, like Sally that has was a teacher for 10 years is now Yeah, it's probably less fun than that.

So the board has a nominating committee and if you're interested in serving, you can express your interest of course. And the board vets, candidates. And then, um, every April. They're elected at a meeting of our members. Wow. Okay. So this is a leg, 94-year-old. 94-year-old. So you joined when it was just over 90 years.

Yeah. You joined the organization, 92 years old. What excited you about coming to join this organization, moving to South Bend, Indiana from Chicago? Uh, I think it was as equal parts history and potential, right? So this, the credit union is the largest credit union, and that means we're serving a lot of Hoosiers and we're doing a lot of good and there's a lot to be proud of.

In fact, Teachers Credit Union now, Everwise has a history book. You know, that we took the time a few years ago to go into the archives and interview a bunch of employees and there's a 100-page glossy sort of full color book. That's all about the history of the credit union. Why were credit unions so important?

You know, 94 years ago, uh, this would've been what, the late, the 1930s, that's like not a good time for finance in general across America. It goes back to the Great Depression, right? Yeah. So the sort of average people had a hard time accessing banking in credit. And uh, there was a cooperative banking movement kind of started in Germany, came into the United States through Canada.

There's a, a guy named Edward Filene. He was a big businessman, kind of famous for Filene's Basement stores. Maybe you've heard of those, but you know, yeah. So kind of then in the Northeastern United States used to be a big retail empire called, uh, Filene's Basement. Oh, okay. And Edward filing sponsored credit unions all over the United States in the 1930s to help normal people get access to banking and credit.

That's wild now. 'cause I feel like today. You know, whether it's lending or loans, like, like there are people that wanna give you money for whatever you might need money for today, but Yeah, in the thirties, like this is like right after the Great Depression, right Around the Great Depression era. Yeah.

During the Great Depression. Oh yeah. After it. Yep. Okay. So very important for normal everyday people to get access to banking and credit. And the industry has grown since then. And, and you're right, like I think modern banking is a lot more accessible to some people, but there are different challenges today.

So one role that bank, that credit unions play in the banking industry is they serve local and rural communities, right? Mm-hmm. So as sort of banks and, uh, other organizations change their strategies, maybe close branches and move on, credit unions tend to stay very stuck in those communities and committed to them and serving.

Yeah, that is interesting. Uh, so I grew up in the small town of bourbon, okay. And we used to have the first state bank of bourbon. Uh, two locations. They were two blocks away from each other. Yeah. So like one drive through location, one walk-in location. I remember like going to college and like there's not a branch of the first state bank of bourbon anywhere.

I'm two and a half hours away from home. Yeah. And that was the moment where I was like, ah man, I probably need to get like into a different bank. 'cause I can't really, like, there's not a branch or anything I can walk into here. So that's interesting of like, and then we were a very rural community. Right.

And it is interesting to like, and then they end up getting sold to another bank and it kind of like, yeah, it's like pass along. And a lot of times these rural communities don't get, maybe they get rolled up into and they're like, Hey, drive 25 minutes to Right. Wherever. And it's like if you get off work at five on a Friday or four on a Friday and you can't make it to the bank and cash your check, like these finance things are important.

It makes a difference. And there's actually a term for that. It's called a banking desert. A place where banking. Locations and services are hard to access. And that can sometimes occur in urban context, but also very often in rural communities. Yeah, like, okay, so you have 50 locations spread throughout the state.

Correct. Do you kinda like cover all the, all the areas? Well, we cover a wide variety areas. We're not in every part of Indiana. We have about 20 branches in central Indiana, of course. Mm-hmm. Indianapolis, Indian Metro, but communities around there. And then Michiana, kind of South Bend, that kinda South Bend.

Elkhart region is our home community. So we're very concentrated there. And then also northwest up near Chicago, we have some branches too. Oh, okay. That's awesome. Um, yeah, growing up in Northern Indiana, I definitely saw. Teacher's credit union like, like in people's end zones on banners, like all sorts of like a staple of the Northern Indiana community, like the, oh my god, I'm trying to remember what his name was, but like the local sports guy would be like out and there'd be like a TC thing on the cart.

And then, so it's cool to see the evolution there. But I mean, today you guys are Everwise and you joined and then a year later, um, you kind of like. Reintroduce Everwise Credit Union to the state. Take us through what the process of changing a 90-year-old brand and rebranding and reshaping it and, uh, finding this new identity.

Looks like That is a great question and a cool story. And it really is all about a team. There's a whole team of people that do great work in order to make something like that happen. And I would say that, um, you mentioned, I really love the fact that you mentioned our involvement with local schools. Um, obviously that's a big part of our history and it continues to be the case.

So even though we are now what we would call a community credit union, really anyone can join Everwise Can Bank with Everwise. We still are very close to the education community. We still work very closely with a lot of local schools. And so the, and this is relevant to the brand story because we wanted to rebrand in a way that was true to who we were and who we will always be, but also gave us a better opportunity to tell the story about how everyone could participate.

Yeah. Right. Because if it's. Yeah, you would think you had to be a teacher to join Teachers Credit Union. You know, this is like Marketing 1 0 1 right there. Yeah. It says it in the name. And actually we were led by data. So we were sort of looking at how we were growing and who was joining and banking with us.

And we did the research and the research came back and was pretty clear. Roughly two thirds or 70% of people who did not bank with us thought they could not bank with us for that very reason. Yeah. They're sort of like, well, it says teachers in the name, you know, I like teachers, but I'm not a teacher. So, yeah.

Uh, and we had a lot of our frontline employees facing that challenge every day. They would have to tell people, oh, you don't have to be a teacher. It's not about really being a teacher. Come, you know, come join the credit union. This is interesting. And like the national comparison, this will make I think, a lot of sense to people.

If you've ever seen Rob Gronkowski talking about Navy Federal Credit Union. Yeah. And he's like, well, you don't have to serve, but like your grand. And like, I feel like. This is broad generalization, but like almost everyone knows someone whose grandpa served in some branch of the military. So like the, they like really rephrase it of like, you know, almost everyone in America is, has a tie to Navy Federal Credit Union or something like that.

Yeah. So like you guys tell you, Hey, it's a great example. Teachers like it's, it's for more, it's a community financial partner here. Yeah. Okay. So in 2022, when you joined, was there like, was this already on the docket or was this something you came in? It was something we were talking about and working on.

Right? Yeah. It's not something that we had finished internally, hadn't made final decisions around how to proceed, but it was something that the credit union was wrestling with. Okay. And so we were kind of looking at the question of we know what to do with the brand. We've been an open kind of community financial institution.

Any consumer, um, or business could join and bank with us. But you know, we didn't really feel like we were getting that, that message out there. So one thing, well, legacy businesses that have been doing things a certain way for a really long time is they're not always the most receptive to abrupt change very quickly.

And so you get the, I'll say fun, uh, role of coming in here as this new guy from Atlanta, then to Chicago. Coming to Indiana and saying, you know what? I know you guys have been doing this for 90 years, but. I think that we should look at rebrand and like, you know, championing this change and this brand refresh.

Was that a challenge for you to, uh, to come in there and, you know, help drive this thing forward? It, it was a challenge of course, and we could talk about how that worked. Yeah. But there were, I think the, within this, the culture of the organization, the seeds to make it work. So one of the things I would say is when the board brought me in to my leadership role, they were committed to growth and service.

They were saying, Hey, we're the largest credit union in Indiana, and that's pretty good, but we are not serving enough Hoosiers and we'd be happy to serve beyond the borders of Indiana. And so we want to take care of more people and, and we want to grow. And, and so that sort of ambition to grow was the thing that kind of opened the board's mind to what's it going to take to do that.

And so this kind of mission to serve our customer owners and, um, make their lives better financially is what got people thinking, what's it gonna take? To really do that. And then I think the other secret was just connecting to history. I mentioned how passionate this organization was about its history and you know, if you can kind of dig into that history and, and connect the history to the potential of the organization, then people start to believe, well, maybe we should try to do something better.

So where does it start? If you're going through a large corporate rebrand. Uh, and even renaming, where do you start? Like what's the first meeting to kick this something off? Like, like do you have a marketing consultant come in and like, you know, make a mood board and like figure out all those things? Or how does it look?

Yeah, it didn't work that way. Yeah. Actually we had, um, a couple of executives on the team that were there before I was there and they went to an industry conference and they heard stories of other credit unions rebranding and they recognized that, well, this is some of the similar challenges we're facing.

And then the other thing I already mentioned was. Uh, the experience our employees were having, and even I saw this when I came in to join the organization, going around to talk to employees in branches at contact Center, you know, everyone serving our customers, the members. I got the same story. You know, this sort of Teachers Credit Union brand was a point of discussion.

People were always talking about, well, it's really not about teachers and we're about more than teachers. And so you could just feel a little bit, yeah, the effort, the frustration that the, that our employees were facing as they tried to take care of more people. So you kinda bring those things together, a sense of what's possible, stories of other organizations making those changes, and then sort of the real on the ground experiences we're trying to serve people.

And that's what like, okay, there's something to do here. Okay. So how long does the process take? Like, how long did you guys' process take? It took a while because the, um, you know, there was leadership change and a pandemic in the mix, but I can tell you the process, right? Yeah. So, you know, first you start with understanding who you really are.

So we did work with a third party to help us do it, and then we had a, a dedicated team internally, a very smart people. And it was a multi-year process. But what you really do is you get in and, and you talk to your employees, you talk to your customers, you talk to your board of directors, you talk to people who don't even bank with you and say.

You know, what, what do we mean to you and what should a financial institution be? And, and you really explore who you are and then you explore who you want to be and your, and your values, and you put kind of all that together. Were there any of those conversations that really stuck out to you and resonated, like, and maybe still resonate with you today of like, you know, you're a couple months into this job, you're starting to have these conversations about your brand and what people are saying about it.

Well, there were so many stories from real people about how we made a difference in their journeys, right? And, and sort of where they went over the course of time, maybe what happened in their family and the journey of their family or their business, their business started somewhere and ended up in a better place and we were with them along the way.

And so all of those stories really did end up informing, uh, what came to be our brand purpose. Okay. So how does the idea. Or the action of changing the name, like is is it like, take me into the room? Like are people sitting around there, like spitballing ideas? Are there like, is there like a naming contest where you send out anyone wanted, submit your name, like this is old school.

All of those things happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for sure there's, there is brainstorming and, and spitballing and you know, and we at, uh, Everwise, the employees on the team did contribute to all of that. And then there's like some professional work that goes into it too. You kind of sharp people that help you come up with those things.

Mm-hmm. And, and you ask, you ask employees for their input and then it all goes into kind of like a black box where the pros help you look for a name that captures everything. And of course there's the technical question of can you trademark it and is it protectable, is it unique? And, and all of those pieces.

How much is the URL gonna cost? Yeah. You know, like, okay, all that. And so, yeah, you get to a shortlist and you, and you pick the name that. Works best. Who, where did Everwise originate from? Well, Everwise is, uh, a word that puts together, it's a brand new word that, that puts together two ideas we really care about.

And we think, um, it goes back to our history of, you know, education, learning and growth and, and human potential. And so this idea of, um, you know, constantly growing and developing and, and getting wiser. Do you remember when you heard it for the first time when someone was in a meeting and they were like, you know, what about.

Everwise. I do remember when I heard it for the first time, and it was actually just before I took the job, right? So I had a con, I had a, um, conversation with the executives who were working this project before I joined, and I was talking with the board about taking the role and they said, Hey, you know, we wanna brief you on the work we're doing, um, here at Teachers Credit Union.

And they walked me through it and I remember them saying, well, here's the brand name we're considering now, and we kind of settled in this term. Everwise and I was super thrilled. I just, I felt like it was the growth mindset in a word, like in one word. This idea of just constantly learning and growing, no matter how wise you feel like you are, you're kind of ever wiser as you learn and grow.

And it just really, I spoke to me. Yeah, I think that's really interesting piece of how that happens. Like how you go through, you know, the iteration and I, I feel like that's like a pretty fun job. Whoever is like the third party that gets to like, walk around and like, you know, collect all the people's thoughts and then come up with something creative and cool, it's like, that's really fun.

Like what, I dunno if there's anyone out there that wants to come on the show and talk about doing that sort of work, but it's, it's interesting to, yeah, get the emotions and the service and how your members feel and to put that into a word that's gonna be on the side of your buildings and all of your marketing material and on your, you know, different activations and sponsorships and things.

And I'm a big believer in the power of brand and I feel like you can just. Feel it. You can sense it when you get it right, you know, when, when the, the brand identity and the word and, and the, all the colors and all those pieces that come together in a complete brand, you know, speaks to who you feel like you are and who you're trying to become and all, it just feels right.

Yeah. That's pretty magical. Like, there's not very many, I would say, bad brands where you like, where someone puts something out in the world and you're like, oh, I just don't, there's a lot of just like, eh, that's not bad. Like, it's okay. There's a lot of like, okay, but when you crush it and you get it right and it makes people just like light up and they're like, yes, I love that.

That's really cool. Yeah. Like that's, that is like the exponential, like you just, you know, you have loyal members of the whole nine yards there. Okay, so you guys decide on Everwise? Yep. How do you one, oh my gosh, I have two. Two very interesting to me, questions about this. Uh, I'm gonna start with one. How do you communicate this to an organization that spreads across the entire state and again, has been doing something for over 90 years one way?

That's a great question. And you do it, you know, very carefully with planned change management and some showmanship. So one of the things we thought about is the brand is targeted at employees as well as the outside. Do we want to tell a story to our employees about who we are and who we're becoming, and we want them to feel proud and excited.

So how do we launch the brand to them and involve them in that? So part of it was keeping it secret upfront so we could have the right big reveal. But then the second part of it is bringing people in to the know in, in the know, and then helping them, um, experience the brand as we roll it out over time.

So the team did a, a really cool job with that. We, um, actually. Brought everyone together, every Everwise employee in one place in Wabash, Indiana. And this was in late May of 23. You know, we have about 750 employees, uh, maybe a little, a little more than that. And in the room, just over 100 folks knew that we were rebranding and knew what the brand was.

So it was a pretty well kept secret and we brought them in there and it was the first time the whole organization had gotten together in nine years because, you know, the pandemic and a few other things got in the way. So, um, this is a big deal in the history of the organization. Every employee in one place for the first time in almost a decade.

And we talked a lot about our history and who we were. And where we've been. And then, but the really whole point of the day was the brand reveal. And so we kind of told the story of the importance of brand and then the work we did. And then right before a lunch break where everyone kind of had a chance to go mingle and, and hang out and connect with their friends, we revealed the name.

So Chief Marketing and Growth Officer, Angie Dvorak on stage reveals the name and it was super cool. Like, and we had you, like I mentioned, you want to think about the showmanship piece of it. So we had all of the old Teachers Credit Union colors, which were red and white and gray, and they were sort of all on the screens and the lighting.

And then, you know, Angie reveals the brand Everwise and there's a little brand video that that rolls out the brand and all the lighting changes to purple. And like I can feel like. You know, chills, just remembering the moment people, you know, they stood up and they cheered and yeah, I had, you know, one member of my board a little, you know, kind of tears in his eyes on the second row.

So it was just like a super touching moment where people, you could tell the brand was connecting, right? They're like this, this word, this brand holds our story. And, you know, it holds our future. And, um, it's, it is really the right time to make a change. Was it nerve wracking? Oh yeah. For you? Yeah. I mean, I think about because just as easy and obviously like, you know, they're your employees and you know, they're gonna be excited about the future and the growth of the company.

But like, if they didn't, like if there wasn't a standing ovation, there were no tears, we were worried about it. Like people would be upset. We were worried about it because it is a 93-year-old company at the time, and we have very tenured employees who care a lot about the work they do, and they're proud of, of being teachers, credit union employees.

So we're like, man, they might hate it. So we were, but they didn't hate it. Okay. They loved it. They loved it. And then you can like breathe again and you're like, okay, now I haven't had lunch in the past three days. I can have lunch now. Like, it, it works. Yeah. And the other fun thing we did, I mentioned sort of after that.

You know, so the, the kind of the swag, the merchandise, that's super important. So really cool, you know, brand logo wear. And our employees have loved that, you know, they, they sort of are always wearing Everwise clothing and colors and, um, that it's been really popular. Yeah. Uh, for people going into the Everwise, uh, merch store and, and buying stuff for them.

The, uh, the second question kind of about a rebrand is the physical aspect of like going to 50 locations and changing all of the things, like how long does it take to change out 50 signs, like, you know, these big, like the actual physical structures that has to, to take a process. It's a lot. It's a lot of work and you can either do it quickly or you could do it over time.

You know, one approach is cheaper, but we thought it was really important to make the change. Rapidly. And we worked with our partners and, you know, internal employees did an awesome job of planning all of that out. We staged in, in advance. And you can't imagine the work that goes into it because you have all these different locations and different cities and there are different rules and every branch is unique and different.

You have to get permits from the city and, you know, you, you kind of wanna try to keep that stuff secret. If you, if you don't want the market to know you're rebranding and just like all of this work. And then you gotta design the signs and people have to come out and measure it. And, and you gotta fabricate all of those things.

And then you have to stage all of those things. And so the team did a really awesome job when the brand was revealed within a matter of weeks, just a few months, we had almost everything changed over. Wow. Um, and one of the biggest signs of, of you all is downtown Indianapolis at White River. Yeah.

Everwise Amphitheater. Yeah. Well, how, take me through that process. How, how long have you guys been on the, the naming rights event? It's been a number of years. I don't know when we started. Was it before it was? Yeah. So it was TCU Amphitheater before that. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay. So then you guys go through and, and it gets, and I'm sure that's kind of an interesting piece and I kind of love your reaction there because it's sort of like, I don't even remember it being TCU, it's sort of in your mind.

It's al already always been Everwise Amphitheater, which is kind of cool. But, you know, for several years before we rebranded, it was TCU and they probably thought, oh wow, we're getting a new title sponsor for the amphitheater downtown. And that's kind of, I don't know, like a little bit of like, you know, getting people to Google you guys and learn about, oh, this is, this isn't, this is its Legacy Indiana brand.

Uh, that's really interesting. I feel like that would be a big one too, if you're talking about all the signs that have to be changed and Yeah. And that was, it's interesting because you have to work with that venue and when are you gonna rebrand? With respect to their season. So we changed our name in June of 23 and obviously Everwise Amphitheater, concerts are running all summer.

Yeah. And so, you know, we could change some things, but we had to wait until the end of the season to change everything. So really Everwise Amphitheater, we came fully converted for the next summer concert season in 24. Yeah. Um, but it looks really great. Yeah. Oh and great venue. My favorite concert I've ever been to is there.

Uh, it's great. It's spectacular time. Yeah. It's so great. And you get to like, go and experience downtown afterwards. Big proponent of being down there. Um, so one thing I, I saw as we did our research was since 2022, you guys have been growing, uh, fair. Fairly large amount. I would say from the outside, not a credit union, you know, employee, uh, I think our numbers said from four and a half billion to five and a half billion in assets, 20% growth.

That's right. That's really, really impactful. And I think that as you think of, um, what goes along with that, like, you know, rebranding the company, growing, all these things, like what's been fueling the growth for you all. Dedication to serving our members, right? Yeah. So understanding those consumers, what they're looking for and trying to meet their needs.

We have also been, um, building new branches around the state. So we have a couple of new branches. We've recently opened a few more scheduled to open in northern metro Indy. So we had, um, I think last year we opened one in Westfield and we have, um, one coming soon in Zionsville and another one, um, over in Eastern Hamilton County.

So we we're continually opening locations and that's driving growth as well in 2025. It's interesting that physical presence. Would be helping drive growth. I feel like everything is kind of like online book here, like blah, blah, blah. Like, you don't have to go, you don't have to get off the couch. Stay in your PJ's.

Why is a physical presence so important to the growth of your guys' organization? You know, there was a time in the banking business when everyone thought like the branch was dead. You know, we, we just don't need branches anymore. That is not true. We and other banking businesses have found that branches are really important for growth.

Yeah. And people look at branches as a place, uh, like a safety net. You know, if something's going wrong with my money or if I have questions, then I wanna be able to go in and talk to talk to someone. Yeah. And it's a great place to get consultation and advice. Yeah. So if you're looking for, you know, uh, to do something more complex, like, I want to kind of, I, I think I wanna buy a house.

I think I'm ready to do that. You really do want to talk to someone. And there's been a lot of interesting data as, uh, gen Z kind of millennials,

uh, get older. They are starting to prefer branch-based organizations. You know, they, you know, obviously at one time in their life. Chime and these other sort of digital banking businesses were attractive to them.

But more and more it's like the banks with, with retail locations are, are where they're going. And it's because of their time of life. You know, maybe they are a little bit more established. Maybe they have a, a little bit more in the bank to manage. Like, how can I be smarter with this money that I'm starting to accumulate?

Maybe they're starting to form a household and they, and they wanna buy a home. And so, um, branches are actually really important. What's key is it's a part of a mix, right? You know, you have to be, um, digital and available through all those channels supported by a branch network. You know, who is the most worried about bank branches and financial institution branches failing.

Dum Dums suckers, their business would've plummeted without banks. Oh my gosh. Like that was my favorite part of going. I mean, talk about secondary like effects there. Like I don't know how many Dum Dums suckers are sold to financial institutions across the country, but it's a lot. Yeah. And dog treats now too.

Oh, you can bring dogs into the bank. I've seen, yeah. Go to the drive-thru and they give a treat to the dog. Oh yeah. The pup cups. But for dogs, there we go. Who would've thought of ask about that the next time you're at your financial institution? Yeah, but I just remember the mystery suckers. Like I would always get to pick one of those out there.

Mrs. Fisher, I was in her, she would just always gimme a sucker every time we went in there. I was like, let's go. And they're like, what's the flavor of this one? It's interesting 'cause it like, also, uh, it gave me a fond experience of the bank. Like I still get a sucker today. That's why I can't go in there very often or I'd be like 5,000 pounds.

Um, that's funny. But I love it. And it was like, it is interesting, like the psychology of that though. I had, I liked going into the bank 'cause it was like we were doing our whatever and I would get a sucker and it was like, oh, I want, for me, I was like, I need to go deposit more money into the bank.

Obviously deposits not withdraws for me. Uh, but it was like I would go in there and I would like it and I'd get my sucker and I'd feel good. And, you know, I don't know. There's something about that that helps, you know, with kids if it's all digital. I don't know if that's necessarily reinforcing the same sucker habits that I learned as a kid.

This is like way off in. I love I That's a great point. My, well, I think it's easy to get carried away with technology. Like you think, well, because we could do it with technology, we should do it. But that's not always the case. I, I think banking can be digital and should be digitally enabled. Yeah. Right.

But humans aren't digital. Right. And so banking is a very human thing. So how are you connecting with the people you serve in a human way? Yeah. And so digitize the banking. But don't digitize your relationship with your customer and be there for them in a human way. It does seem like, uh, maybe the last decade it was very much like technology, product efficiency, like the best, most quickest way to do everything.

And now it's like we've got there. It's like you could type one thing into AI and like it's done quickly and people are almost like, I see like, uh, this pendulum swinging back a little bit of like, well, I like the little chitchat and knowing my banker and I like to go in and, you know, and it's like an experience in showmanship.

Do you live in Indianapolis or you Yeah, I'm in Carmel now. You're in Carmel? Okay. Yeah. So have you been to Sullivan's? Yes. Hardware. Sullivan's like lawn and garden. Yeah. Okay. So I had Pat in here and it's like on the surface level, it's a hardware store, you know, but he learned this I know, 20 years ago, and he's like, I have to give people a reason to get off the couch.

Like the rise of e-commerce, all these things. Like we wanted to create this experience at our store that got people out of their pajamas, off the couch and in here. And I think that now more than ever, that matters. Creating an experience that gets people off the, like, whether it's having the most friendly and knowledgeable, knowledgeable.

You know, customer service tellers, people like that. Uh, like just creating this ambiance of this is an enjoyable experience that is, you're gonna like it more than just like clicking a few buttons on your phone or whatever. 100% agree. And for us, you know, banking really isn't always about entertainment and an experience, but there is a similar principle.

You know, at Everwise we have like a tagline, a principle that we say confidence changes everything and we want people to have confidence in themselves and in their finances, but confidence in us as their banking partner. So that's sort of a key idea for us. Mm-hmm. Historically, people would talk about in banking, well retail convenience.

Do you have convenient branch locations? How convenient are your branches competing on convenience. This was sort of a big idea in banking years ago, but, but to your point, we think in the world post pandemic world, post Amazon world, you don't even really have to put on your pants to go to work so much anymore.

So what is, what is less convenient than getting out of the house and going to the branch? It's really not about convenience. It's about. Confidence, right? Yeah. You know, so we say retail confidence. Can people have confidence in Everwise and in our ability to serve them and do our retail branch locations improve their confidence in us and themselves?

Well, one way obviously is giving, you know, confidence to whether it be your members, whether it be your employees, all of that as well, but you're also out in the community helping instill confidence in, in different organizations. I know we were looking through and you guys do a lot of, like, your day of giving you guys are out, like what your, your employees are at like 45, over 45 nonprofits.

Giving's a fun story and, and it's sort of like, um, a visible tip of the iceberg of all the things we do in the community. I'll tell you about Day of Giving. It's, you know, probably a seven or 8-year-old tradition at Everwise Teachers Credit Union before, and the whole, the whole company gets behind it.

So we, you know, we kind of take a holiday in October and. Um, all the employees go out and they, as groups volunteer with different organizations around the community and all the communities that we serve. So this year we had more than 600 Everwise employees at 45 locations all around the state in one day volunteering to contribute to their communities.

Holy. Okay. Have you been to all of the locations? I have not personally been, you know, usually I try to get out there and spend some time with teams and Yeah. And go around to different ones. What have been some of your favorite communities to go visit? Uh, here's one I'd like to tell. Yeah. A couple years ago, a day of giving, there was a group in Fishers at, um, this place, I think it's called Million Meal Movement.

They kind of, yeah, yeah. So we were sort of packing food there. And we were, it was a lot of fun to sort of put these kits together and we were competing to try to get as many as we could. Yeah. They like done against another sort of Everwise team. They've like gamified, uh, that whole experience and created something very fun.

'cause you and the meals that you create there are making an incredible impact. It's like, I think one of those feeds like five people or something. Like, like the, like the bags Yeah. That you seal or whatever. Yeah. Insane. Yeah. Um, okay. So, but then as you've like gone out and from, from South Bend up in the, you know, the Chicago land area up that way North, actually, no, I don't wanna say Chicago land.

I don't wanna say the Northwest Indiana. Yeah, right. They, some people might call that the region. Um, like as you've gone to different locations there, uh, and traveled around the state, uh, have there been any places that you really love visiting that like, um, maybe were unexpected in Mishawaka? Yes. Right.There is a, a great little, um, place called Jesus Latin Grill & Tequila Bar. Yes. Yeah. Have you been there? Yeah. So good. It's like right by the Sun King up in that area, like Right. It is a little bit south of the Riverwalk. Yep. Yeah. That place, it's like in an old Carnegie Library. Yes, it is. It's not, it's like Latin American cuisine.

It's not like, you know, I think some people think of like Hacienda Mexican restaurant in northern Indiana, and they're like, okay, cool. Another one of these like, uh, like, like very normal Mexican restaurants. This is like upscale Latin American cuisine with like a chef and stuff, And from different parts of South America too.

Yeah. It's so good. Yeah. Phenomenal. Very good. Yeah. Okay. That's a good little spot up in Mishawaka. Yeah. I mean, that was obviously the roots of Everwise or up in Northern Indiana, right? Who, how did it get started? Like what was the, like, was it like someone that, like a, an individual that like championed this up in there?

Yeah, it was like a, a just a few teachers from the South Bend Public school system got together. Wow. And they're like, you know what? Like let's get our collective buying power or whatever and help. That's exactly. Make that more, yeah, that's really interesting. Pooled their resources so they could help, um, make loans to each other, small dollar loans and it grew from there.

Whenever I like, I guess growing up I thought of, um, it's a wonderful life. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Where it's like the bank and tr you know what I'm about this movie. I know exactly what you're talking about. And like, there's like a run on the bank and he's like talking his, like the locals off of the g cliff of like, it's okay.

Like, like that's really interesting to see people again, this is the 1930s. Yeah. It's a great example though because credit unions are very much like wonderful life type organizations and in that movie there's Mr. Potter sort of the, the, the kind of the, the cruel businessman across town. Right. And then there's George Bailey running the local community bank.

Yeah. And you know, I think, um, credit unions are just like that. Like they're drawing deposits from local community, then they're lending in that same local community. You know, credit unions, um, really don't have shareholders at all. Credit unions never distribute capital outside of the business. So all of the profits that come from credit union operations go back into the business to serve the local community and the members.

I'd actually be curious, like the average person. Even knew how that all worked. You know, it's like, Hey, when you deposit a thousand dollars into your credit union account, your savings account, like whatever that looks like it is going out to fund someone's. Who's getting a business banking loan to start their ice cream shop or whatever it could be.

Or it's going to maybe like college, you know, student loans or different things like, like the way that your capital is deployed to your local community and like the economics behind that, working in your local community. So that's really fascinating to me. I don't think it's well understood. And to your point, um, really the, when depositors put their dollars into a financial institution, um, then, uh, the financial institution basically is buying or renting those dollars, right?

So you kind of pay, um, interest on that and it's kind of like, I'm renting or buying your dollars to resell them to someone else, right. I lend them back out to a borrower and sort of managing that thing is the thing that kind of makes banking work. And so people who are saving in the community are basically helping people who are borrowing in the community.

Yeah. Where do you feel like, um, from like a lending side. Where are you guys like special, specialized? Like are there, like, are you like commercial lenders? Are you like We are, yeah. You know, where, are there any like projects, because sometimes you see like a bank is like, Hey, we finance the new X, y, z thing.

Are there any big projects like that that you guys have helped been a be a part of around the state of Indiana? Yeah, there's a handful of them and I probably won't remember them all off the top of my head. Yeah. But yeah, so we are very much a commercial lender. Yeah. Uh, we also do auto loans to consumers and mortgage loans to consumers.

So we have a, a lot of, of credit lines of business. I think that sounds like it's hard because in marketing material that can sound like fluffy maybe of like, you know, we are, but then when you see it in practice and you're like, Hey, the new. Hospital in rural, small town Indiana was financed by this because enough people had make, made deposits in this across the state to like, help us bring this to life.

Like that's a pretty cool, like circle of life of the dollar. In the state of Indiana. That's an important way that banking institutions contribute to their communities. Dude, maybe I'm just like getting my mind blown right now, but that's like, it's interesting to me. Uh, or like, you know, so and so went to college or so and so got their first car and it came because enough people had put, you know, their savings accounts into this bank.

That's exactly how it works. Wow. It just feels more real when it's in Indiana, you know, like versus like goes out to. That's why it is important to bank local, right? Yeah. With good credit unions and community banks based here. So because you know, if you're banking with Chase, for example, a big global bank, they're doing the same thing, but they might take your savings dollars and lend it out in another part of the country or somewhere else.

Yeah. Is there like restrictions of like, does Cha, does anyone big National Bank have to like equally distribute loans based on where their members are? No. All right. Bank local. There it is. You know, like, that'd be interesting if like all of your, all of your Indiana big bank dollars were going to the coast.

I'd be a little upset about that, I feel like. Yep. That's something to think about. Something to think about. Oh, okay. So when you talk about supporting local as well, um, I think that a lot of people do think in, okay, I'm not gonna buy my Christmas candles from Amazon. I'm gonna buy a warm glow candle. You know, like, and I think when it's like tangible things, people definitely, like on small business Saturday, people are thinking about shopping local more.

Um, besides seeing the dollars reinvested in your community, you know, in the way we just talked about, are there other ways that like banking with a local credit union, banking, like with a local organization, um, like why people should do that? A banking business like Everwise, if it's thriving? Right. As a, as a great local employer.

Yeah. So you're kind of supporting your, your family and friends that might be working at that organization. And then, um, Everwise is a big contributor to community causes. So even above and beyond the day of giving, for example, Everwise, and we have a foundation, the Everwise Foundation, we've contributed almost a million dollars to, you know, scores of organizations around Indiana.

So there's like a philanthropic thing that, uh, that we do where if you don't have sharehold, like, you know, create shareholder value, the classic, uh, like profits can be redistributed or I don't know how that all works or whatever, but like, it's making an impact in your local communities. Well, for credit unions Yeah.

We don't have shareholders. Yeah. And we're not taking value out of the business and sending it to shareholders. So we create member value. Right. So when we perform highly, we reinvest in the business and we improve the products and services we give Yeah. To members and, and better support communities.

That's very, very interesting. Like how the whole. How the sausage is made of, uh, local financial institutions, I think is fascinating. And there is a good, there's a very great story to be told of like, why this is important. And I think that the other piece too, uh, for like entrepreneurs and, and um, business owners out there, I got the advice of like building banking relationships with these more local slash you know, regional institutions.

Because like, you're not just gonna be the number where it's like, does your, is your revenue this? Have you been in business this long? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like all those things, like, yes those are important, but like where you can walk in and talk to someone and they're like, I dunno. Like it just like having that impersonal relationship important.

That's one. A hundred percent correct. And it's a real thing. It is a real thing. And it's important too beyond just the way you feel it's important for access and equity. So here's something that's interesting to think about, um, in the United States. We have a very large banking industry. You may not know this, but if you add up all the banks and credit unions, there's almost 9,000 institutions across the country, and that's a smaller number than it used to be, but 9,000 independent banking charters and credit union charters when you add it all up.

What's interesting about that is it's very different in every other country in the world. Uh, places like Canada and the United Kingdom and European countries, Australia, their banking sectors are much smaller. Far fewer institutions. There might be like five or six big banks that serve all of Canada, whereas in the United States, there's 4,200 banking businesses and 4,400 credit unions.

And why does that matter? Well, it's because. That, that creates a lot of variety. It creates a lot of banking businesses that care about specific communities. It creates banking businesses that are willing to take risks on certain people. If you're in an, in a, a country that has few institutions and like, if you're not considered bankable by the six banks, you're in trouble.

You can't get banking, what do you do? Like, you, you just don't, don't get a loan. Right? So that's one of one of the reasons why the US economy is so dynamic is because we have so many banking businesses and we have small ones, and we have big ones, and we have local ones, and we have regional ones, and we have credit unions, which are cooperatives, and we have.

Banks, which are for profit, and they all play an important role. And so because you have that variety, that makes our economy more dynamic, different kinds of businesses can get different loans from different credit unions and banks with different risk appetites. And so that, that's super important. And I, I worry that the banking industry can shrink too much.

Right? As over time, if there's consolidation and mergers and maybe the burden of regulation becomes so high that operating costs rise. It would be unfortunate if our economy started to look like the Australian economy and we just had, you know, 25 institutions. Yeah. It's better to have thousands. Like if you could fit the leaders of all the banks of a country in a room for dinner, I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing.

I don't think it is. No. 'cause then it's like, also like competition also like breeds excellence where it's like you're forced to, you know. Yep. Create the best products, have the best service, like win. You know, like, and that drives like better experience for us as individuals. And you have a chance of banking with someone who cares about your community and cares about you.

That's why I'm bringing it back to this idea of being more than a number. Yeah. 'cause if there's only, you know, 10 or 20 institutions in a country, every time you walk into that place, it's like. Well, just a whole bunch of numbers. Yeah. Almost nine you said over 9,000 different, yeah. Banks and credit unions.

Nearly 9,000 banks and credit unions. Nearly nine. I wonder what the smallest one is like. I wonder where the smallest it is. The very, well, I don't know. I don't know the banking sector as well. Yeah. But there are some credit unions that are, um, less than a million dollars in size. They very small. That was probably like the first state Bank of bourbon.

I don't know what it was back in the day, but like, I mean this probably got sold in 2015 or 16 and it's like two locations in bourbon baby. Let's go. Like that's interesting. Wow. I didn't know that number. That's fun. I do wanna round out the show and I wanna talk about your experience coming to Indiana.

I kind of hinted that at that at the beginning and talked about, right? You come from the south. To Chicago, to South Bend. Now to Carmel Central Indiana. Where do you think we could do a better job? Uh, I know as you grew up, I, what did you think about Indiana, you know, as you, you know, advanced in your professional career and you were just next door, but what were your thoughts of Indiana while you were in Chicago?

Did you think of Indiana? Yeah. I, I'd have to say I didn't often think of Indiana. Yeah. Yeah. It, it wasn't, and not that I was trying to ignore it, but, um, kinda low profile in my experience before coming here. Yeah. I feel like a lot of times it's like, you know, there are places like. Texas or California, or New York or Florida.

And it's like a lot of mind share people thinking about those places all the time. They, and they, they either love them or you hate them. And what I find, especially people that are from here, it's usually like, well, I didn't really think about Indiana at all, and that's interesting. Um, and it's obviously what a little piece of what we're trying to change here.

Yeah. Um, what has surprised you the most? Like when you came to Indiana from Chicago, what blew your mind? One of the things that I've loved discovering is the geographic variety of the state. Like, if you don't spend time here, it's easy to think, well, maybe it's kind of just a lot of farmland. Right. Um, but that's not the case at all.

If you go around the state, there's a lot of great variety. Uh, we have some, a little bit of coastline, right? We, we have a little bit of coastline. We have, um, you know, some rolling hills and great forests and um, like a lot of variety. I think everyone, yeah. Just says it's just flat cornfields. And blah, blah, blah.

And it's like, there are parts of the state that are that, and maybe that's the part that people have driven him through, driven through in the past. But there is a ton of really interesting stuff. And like, I just watched this whole video about where the glaciers stopped of like, uh, I think it's Martinsville.

And so that's why like they stopped there and that was what created all this like fertile farm ground from like Indianapolis North. Mm-hmm. And the rolling hills of Southern Indiana, uh, are kind of like an extension of that like Tennessee, Kentucky, smoky Mountain feel. Yeah. Uh, and it's really interesting as you bring people here and take them to different parts, like, I mean, the average person I feel like in South Bend has never been to Evansville.

Probably not. You know, the average person in Evansville has never been to South Bend, and I've been to both actually in, in two weeks. Like in the span of 14 days, I went from, uh, south Bend to Fort Wayne, to Indianapolis, to Evansville. I may be one of the, I don't know how many people have done that in a short period of time, but seeing the four major cities of Indiana, uh, and it's so interesting of like the lack of connectivity between those different pieces.

It's just been something I've been really fascinated about, of like, people in Fort Wayne have no idea what's going on in Evansville and like the river there like. The Ohio River is crazy and the people in Evansville have no idea about like the golden dome of Notre Dame and like the tradition and that feel of like lake effects.

It's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, that's just like my tangent of like the state of Indiana. Um, what have you, what has surprised you and what have you enjoyed about living in Indiana and becoming a Hoosier by choice? The people here are great and so I had definitely, uh, encountered welcoming culture and.

Built, uh, a lot of fast friendships. Was it like a little bit at first, like, you're like, what's going on here? I, I feel like a lot of people come in and it's like, are these people that nice? Like do they, are they edge? I did not have that experience. 'cause remember I was raised in the south, right? Yeah. So kind of southern hospitality and, and that, that I was used to.

So it felt a little bit like coming home, but, um, a Midwestern version of that. So I, you know, I, I really appreciate the, the hospitality. Are there some similarities between the South and Indiana and some key differences between the South and Indiana besides weather? I, I do think that culturally there is a lot of similarity.

You know, I think people, um, kind of take pride in, in home and they are friendly and, um, hospitable and, uh, you know, I, I do think there is a quintessential, um, American energy about, yeah, about Indiana that is similar to certain parts of the south. Okay, here's a, here's a little th exercise. Okay. If you could bring one thing from Atlanta to Indianapolis and give one thing from Indianapolis to Atlanta, like share, what would you, what would you bring from Atlanta to Indy and what would you share with Atlanta from Indy?

I think people in Atlanta would not like to hear this, but I would like to move the weather, right? Because I actually like the fourth seasons and I think the summer in the south could get pretty warm. So, you know, uh, nice four mild manageable seasons. So I would move the weather. Wow. Wow. They would be so upset.

The snow plows that, do they have snow plows in Georgia? No. Yeah, you're not gonna invest in that. No. Doesn't make sense. Okay. So you'd share, I do think four seasons are, it's also a piece of like what make Hoosiers, like, you're constantly looking forward to something like, oh yeah, like. Yeah, I can't wait until the fall comes.

And then the fall gets here and you're like, shoot, I can't wait until the first snow. And then you're like, I can't wait till summer. It's interesting. I do. I like the Four Seasons as well. Okay. If you could bring something to Indy from Atlanta, what would you bring? The Great Southern cooking they have.

Oh, is there like a specific spot that you're like, man, hey, if so and so's restaurant opened up a second location here in Indy, you'd be a frequent flyer. Yeah. Southern Soul Food Kitchen. That's, yeah. That's really great. Well, that leads us perfectly into this sec, into this segment. This question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart.

They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homeisjchart.com. So my question for you, Jason, is why do you call Indiana home? Well, I think the very first reason is I had the opportunity to come lead a great organization.

So I kind of, I, I, I took that invitation. Um, but now I think that, um, Indiana is a perfectly balanced place. That is on, on the edge of, I think, a great next few decades. I, I think the Midwest, especially sort of the, the Great Lakes region is positioned to do really well over the next couple decades, even better than it has over the last 20 or 30 years.

Well, you are, I mean, you have spent time studying at Northwestern, it's Stanford, uh, Emory, you know, like, you seem to know a little bit about education and like, what are these leading indicators that are making you feel so bullish on the Midwest? What goes down must come up. Right. So for a while, the, the Midwest has been a little bit flyover, you know, um, and we're ready for our next wave of popularity.

Right? And, and you kind of see that, you see people from the coasts sort of coming this way. And I think it's kind of time for the Midwest to become popular again, and I, I'm not a historian, but if you think roughly back over history, there've been a couple of times when the Midwest got really popular, right?

So after the colonial period, people moved inland and there was a lot of growth in the Midwest and then, uh, people moved even further west and the Midwest got quiet. Right. And then there was an industrial revolution and there was a lot of boom in the Midwest, and then the economy changed and the Midwest got rusty.

And so now it's time, I think, for us to boom again. It's like it comes in cycles. So I think that's one part of it. I think we're, I think we're on the right side of globalization trends. Mm-hmm. I think it's sort of the global economy changes. There's gonna be more coming back our way. And I think we're on the right side of distributed work trends.

Like, if I don't have to move to a, a coastal expensive city a long way away, and I can still get a great job, I think I might rather just stay here. And I think a lot of people are gonna feel that way over the next 20 to 30 years. And I think we're on the right side of climate change trends. I mean, you know, I, I think that, um, I'm not here to debate why cli the climate is changing, but I think, um, you talk to people who work in the insurance business, you know, their spreadsheets, tell 'em, you know, the climate's.

Changing. And if there's a corner of the world that's gonna net benefit from climate change, I think it might be ours. Yeah. And we're, we're on the right side of my change. I mean, I don't want to, I don't wanna spend 12 months a year sweating. Right. Not good for me. Uh, it is interesting you talk about like the, where it's time to shake some of the rust off.

That's Keep rolling, Indiana. Come on. Yeah. Um, before this, before we started recording, you said that you were very, you know, interested in, in furthering knowledge, like very curious, always learning. Is there something could be related to credit unions or could be related to like, something totally random.

Like, what's, what are you learning about now? That's just fascinating. You, well, I'll tell you what's fascinating to me. It may not be fascinating to the audience here, but I am really interested in, um, corporate governance, like how boards run businesses. Yeah. I don't know if that, that's interesting. Like, but, but not to your audience.

Yeah. What's the, what's the resource? Are you going to like corporate governance.com? Like what are you learning from that? Like what resources are you looking at to learn about that? Uh, well, there's a lot of great resources out there. Yeah. But one organization that my board is involved in is called the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Right. And this might seem really boring to you, but I would tell you that. Um, the people at the very top of an organization and, and how they govern that organization have a huge impact on how successful it is. And I would say that Everwise is fortunate to have a board that's committed to learning, development and growth and getting better.

And one interesting thing about boards is boards are, um, a kind of a, a weird group of people that need to govern themselves, right? Often no one is really watching a board very closely 'cause everyone else is busy doing the things they have to do every day. And so it really requires a mature person to be a good board member and to help contribute to a great board.

You have to sort of govern yourself. And you have to, and make sure you, yourself are getting better and you're good enough to govern an organization. And I feel like my board is doing that kind of work and, um, kind of improving themselves for the benefit of the credit union. And it's just, it's a really interesting.

Really interesting thing. Surprisingly interesting. Yeah. Corporate governance. I, I love, I'll get on random rabbit holes about all sorts of things, so like I'm all here for it. Yeah. Uh, is it, I know it doesn't make me sound cool, but hey, but it's an honest answer, but I, I appreciate that. You know, um, if there was a piece, maybe a book or a podcast or a video or an article or something that you've consumed that helped you with leadership, that helped you, like whether it's from change management to all these different things, is there something that sticks out that you would recommend to listeners to check out?

You know, one I like to recommend, and maybe you've got this recommendation before, it's a Simon Sinek book called Leaders Eat Last. Oh yeah. So it's, it's on my list to read Worth, gimme the, it's, I, I highly recommend it. It's my favorite, um, of all the Simon Sinek books I've read, but he sort of talks about how leadership.

Um, really comes out of human culture and like the brain chemistry of that, you know, sort of the, you know, the dopamine and the serotonin and the cortisol and managing all of those things in groups and how the role of leaders is really to serve the group and how leaders who eat last are the ones who make the biggest difference.

I highly recommend it. I like that. All right. It's on my list. I'm currently finishing up, grind it out, the story of Ray Kroc. Okay. It's, that sounds great. It's so interesting. He was such a wild card guy. Uh, he started like, he kinda like got into the McDonald's industry and when he was 52. Yeah. So he's not like a young, he's not a young guy and just like literally grinded this thing out and blew it up to what it is today.

It's such a wild, fascinating story. I love business biographies. Yes. Yeah. And the history of businesses. Maybe you've heard of this podcast before. There's one out there. Called acquired. Have you heard of that? Yeah. Yeah. That's a great one. Yeah. Or like have, getting the whole history of a business and how it fits into the history of the time.

Yeah. It's like, are we weird? 'cause that's like entertaining to us, like probably a little bit, probably. Um, amazing. Okay. We've come to the part of the show where we ask the same three questions to every guest that comes on. Okay. Obviously you've been a few different places, right? You've been to Chicago, grew up in St.

Louis and Atlanta, all been here, there, out studying with Stanford, studying with Northwestern, all these places across the country. But what is something the world needs to know about Indiana? I can do, I can go three. Okay. Let's get all three. So one of them I already mentioned was the geographic variety.

Another one. Indiana has some really beautiful county courthouses. Uh, you know, speaking my language, if you, if you'd see these courthouses, they're like beautiful sort of masonry structures. And I think. Indiana was developing it, like the golden era of courthouse design and construction like architecture there.

Yeah, so I've been to 50, I've been to 50 of the 92 counties in Indiana. My goal is to get to all 92. There are some incredible ones that are so cool and there's some ones that are like, like, it's unfortunate. Um, there are a few counties that like, whether it was destruction or like fire or like different things that have had to move or get newer buildings, they've tried to preserve, um, some of the older ones, but they might not be functioning anymore.

Like, I'm thinking about Martin County for instance. Like they couldn't get in and do all the like a, a DA like accessibility stuff. So it's a museum now and they had to move their government building, but there's some real, is there one that you've seen that just like blew your mind? Uh, I can't think of one.

'cause there's so many great ones. What's your favorite? Yeah. Uh, one that's, uh, the most interesting one. One of the most interesting ones is Paoli. It's built on a roundabout. It's like so interesting. And it's like elevated and there's like big cannons out front. That one's pretty cool. And there's another one that has a tree growing from the roof.

That's Greensburg. Yeah, that one's very interesting that people, they've been on Ripley's Believe It or Not, like twice people from around the world come to see the tree in Greensburg. Tree City. Come on. Another fun one is Lebanon. So this is Boone County Lebanon. I talked about this like the other day too.

I have such random knowledge. Um, they had the largest single piece, uh, columns like those. The columns mm-hmm. At one point were the largest columns in the world, I believe. That's great. Um, 'cause they're so big and the largest single piece columns. Mm-hmm. The columns measuring 35 feet, three inches were at the time of their construction.

The tallest solid columns in the us. And it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. That's very cool. 11, that's what I'm talking about's. 11 Bo Brownie. Great, great courthouses in this state. I love it. Yeah. And then the third thing I would say people need to know about Indiana is just how culturally important the 500 is.

Right? Everybody knows about the Indy 500 race, but before I came to Indiana, I thought, well, like there's race weekend. It's kind of like a big football game, right? But no. Right. Uh, that's the whole month. And, and I didn't know that before I came here. And it's the whole, the whole state, you know, from, from top to bottom, up and down, every, you know, sort of class of society, every kind of person is into it.

And it's kinda like, you know, new, uh, Louisiana has Mardi Gras and we've got the Indy 500, and there's like these things sometimes in different parts. There's like a 30 day rodeo in Houston, the Houston Rodeo, which is kind of cool. Well, we have the 500. And so I don't think people from elsewhere know how culturally important.

It's, and words can't describe it. Like, like when you walk in on race day for the first time and you've never seen it and you don't realize how big it is. Like, uh, like I, I've had a few IndyCar drivers in here. I am like Marcus Ericsson, and he came, you know, from, uh, Sweden, one of those two places.

And he's like, I got off the airport and I made them drive me past the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And it was just like, it took your breath away. It's crazy. Do you remember like the moment you walked into the Speedway for the first time on race day and like what your initial thoughts were? Yeah.

Totally blown away. Right, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's a, it's a massive facility and there are just hundreds of thousands of people everywhere and you know, the. The, the costume choices are fascinating. I will, I'll give a subtle plug to go back and listen to our episode with Doug Boles and he gave his hour by hour race day itinerary for him.

And it's insane of like what the, what he has to do to help put that thing on. It's like, wake up, wake up, put my blue suit on it, two 15 in the morning and then get there and pass out donuts and do this. It's crazy. Very fun. Alright, next question. This is your opportunity to enlighten the listeners about a part of Indiana that's special to you, that more people need to know about.

What is a hidden gem in Indiana? It's in South Bend. There's a barbershop I go to there that is spectacular. It's called the De Nolf's Barbershop. Um, Ethan De Nolf is the guy who runs it. He's a local business owner and he's just a unique character and he has a whole bunch of unique characters in there that, um, that cut hair.

And he's really communi, uh, committed to the South Bend community. He, he has been around for a few years, recently relocated to South William Street, just a couple blocks from Everwise headquarters. Wow. They've got a great barbershop dog there. A Springer Spaniel named Finley barbershop dog. Yeah.

Yeah. The barbershop up in, they're like a lot more than just a barbershop. They're hosting like a run club. They have events like, yeah. Super community. Uh, super committed to community life there. That's awesome. Wow. Look at that. What's, what was the guy's name? Uh, Ethan De Nolf. Ethan De Nolf. Good for that. Well, speaking about people, this is our final question of the show.

This is where we get recommendations for future guests or learn about people that are making a huge impact in Indiana, who's a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar. Someone who's doing big things, Mark Tarner and uh, he runs the South Bend Chocolate Company. You heard of slash Dinosaur Museum, right?

And you asked earlier. About is there a project that Everwise is sort of proud of? Financing? Well, we financed the dinosaur museum. Let's go. I have heard on multiple occasions that this is one of the most interesting people in the state of Indiana. Have you had him on the show? No, I haven't. You need to get him on the show.

We need to get him on the show for sure. If you need help, I, I think we can help. Oh yeah, we need an intro and we need to, next time he's down in, in Indianapolis, we need to get him in the studio. 'cause this guy, so South Bend Chocolate Company, but then, yeah, he also like started like, he He just collected a bunch of dinosaur bones and then made a museum.

It's a personal hobby of his, he's been going out west and he has a big collection and he thought, hey, it would be a great idea to open a dinosaur museum. And um, and you know, he also moved his chocolate manufacturing facility over there and has some other cool things. But, um, it's a really cool museum.

Yeah. Okay. So, so we would say, go check out the museum and check out, get some chocolate. Yes. Yeah, like I would say. People in South Bend. I've gotten like the recommendation like two or three times of like, you've gotta talk to this guy 'cause he's fascinating. Yep. Uh, I love it. A chocolatier, come on, let's go.

I love it. Um, Jason, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Sharing about one, your journey from the south up here to Indiana and the impact that you get to make today with Everwise. I think it's so awesome to see, to learn more about how local financial institutions can make an impact on our community.

I think that like hearing you tell the story of like, the impact of like depositing dollars in today is helping finance dinosaur museums in South Bend. Like that's pretty cool. Uh, and learning about how this started 94 years ago. Uh, and you know, a few teachers banded together and they needed the opportunity.

Like that's like, see an impact and like go make the change that you wanna see in the world. I think that's a super cool heritage to continue on. And hearing about the process of going through a corporate rebrand, like. That is big, heavy stuff to do and challenge, and you did a great job of explaining that in a way that I could understand, so I appreciate that.

Thank you for coming on. Keep up all the great work with everything y'all are doing, and we'll talk to you soon. Thanks for having me. A lot of fun. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater.

If you want a behind the scenes look at everything we're doing across the state. Make sure you follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hoosier State. Great. We'll see you next time here on Get IN.